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Mary Devereux speaker to discuss violence toward women in Ukraine

In honor of Women’s History Month, St. Bonaventure University will host Olena Savchuk as the keynote speaker for the 2014 Mary Devereux Lecture.

Savchuk will give a lecture titled “Violence Against Women in the Family in Ukraine” at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 10, in the William F. Walsh Science Center Auditorium.

Savchuk is the 2013-2014 Fulbright Visiting Scholar in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. She is an associate professor of social work at the National University Of Kiev-Mohyla Academy in Kiev, Ukraine.

Violence against women (VAW) is one of the examples of violations of human rights in Ukrainian society. VAW is an unsolved problem, which is caused by the social-cultural nature of violence against women in the family (VAWF) in Ukraine, says Savchuk. Cultural norms dictate relations in the family, gender stereotypes and gender roles, which are influenced via social institutions and the system of parenting in these families.

Savchuk notes that the consequences of VAWF illustrate a destructive influence on the personality of women. The Ukrainian law’s system of dealing with the problem of VAWF needs to be improved in the context of protecting women’s rights and their safety in the family.

In addition to lecturing and developing college-level courses, Savchuk has conducted training programs for Ukrainian social service agencies on human rights violations, including violence against women and the treatment of women with HIV/AIDS.

The lecture is free and open to the public. The program is sponsored by St. Bonaventure’s Women’s Studies Program, which annually celebrates Women’s History Month by paying tribute to Mary Devereux, one of the university’s founders.

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